Hi Leslie,
Welcome to your personalized Grit Lab Report!
We will go week by week, reviewing everything you have told us through Poll Everywhere.
We hope this will help you reflect on what you have learned and experienced during Grit Lab.
Important note!
Sometimes, you may not have been able to respond to all polls.
If the data for one of the polls is missing, the automatic report will display NA, or ““.
Okay, let’s get started!
The first half of Grit Lab delves deep intp the passion facet of Grit.
We like to call it Choose Easy, because we think gritty people pursue what they enjoy.
Putting it graphically, gritty people tend to pursue the intersection of these four circles.
The first time we met, you told us where you were on the grit rubric.
Regarding passion you picked .
Regarding perseverance you picked .
As you know, grit grows, so don’t worry if you are not yet where you’d like to be in your grit journey.
Hopefully, this class will help you become grittier each day.
In week 2, we looked at your interests.
Interest is an emotion, and it is the opposite of boredom.
Your interests are the activities or subjects that spontaneously grab your attention.
Trying things out and seeing how you feel is the best way to refine your interests.
In week 3, we studied values, your beliefs about what is important.
You said your top three values were universalism, stimulation, and achievement.
You wrote a “This I Believe” essay, and here’s where you located it on Schwartz’s value taxonomy.
When we talked about strengths in week 4, you said your personality strength was openness.
You said your top three talents were analytic, social, and musical.
We then talked about goal hierarchies.
You said you had a general intuition (but nothing specific yet) about your top-level goal.
We discussed self-concordance, or how much a goal aligns to your deeply held values and beliefs.
A goal you said you will be pursuing for the next six months is to consistency! .
Here is how self-concordant that goal was:
Don’t worry if your self-concordance for that particular goal is low.
It might mean that you need to reframe that goal in a way that makes it more relevant to your deep self, or change it!
Remember that self-concordance is goal specific, so other goals might be more self-concordant.
We then transitioned to the second part of Grit Lab:
Work Smart
In week 6, we looked at goal setting and planning.
You WOOPed!
For your Wish, what you wanted to accomplish, you said Study for my midterm when I have time and stop pretending I have more time than I do .
For your Outcome, what would happen if your wish came true, you said Having (at the minimum) no regrets if my midterm grade sucks .
For you Obstacle, what it is within you that stands in your way, you said Math is an exhausting subject .
For your Plan, you created this when-then plan to achieve your goal: When I have time, I will sit myself down to study and NOT snack or go on YouTube .
Whether you changed your WOOP or stuck to that one, here’s where it landed between being a total fail, and going exactly according to plan.
And here’s how much you learned
These goals are hard, and despite our best efforts, our plans can fail.
The important thing is that you learn something along the way!
In week 7, we talked about deliberate practice.
You shared you’ve done daily practice in sports .
We learned that deliberate practice requires a challenging, hyperspecific goal, maximum concentration, instant feedback, and is often done alone.
In week 8, we discussed feedback.
Even though feedback can be hard to take, it is often the key to improve. So if you want to improve, seek it actively!
You said you felt Self-conscious when receiving critical feedback, and Self-conscious when receiving positive feedback.
We then turned to learning about stress.
In week 9, you reported feeling of stress in your life right now, the primary source of it being .
We also talked about adversity and failure.
Although related, adversity and failure are different:
Adversity happens to us, whereas failure is something for which we are generally more responsible.
However, how we interpret stress and failure matters…
Interestingly, research has found that people who believe that stress can facilitate learning and growth experience enhanced performance, well-being, and health.
And failure—not achieving a particular goal—can be interpreted as “I’m learning!” and lead you to look for the lesson in that experience.
We closed the Work Smart section of the class by talking about habits.
Throughout the semester, you practice habit building using your Build-A-Habit Guide book.
You describe the habit you chose as Health .
Whether you were successful in habit building or not, this is how much you learned.
Finally, what good is grit if we do not dream for others?
So, we transitioned to Paying it Forward.
In week 10, we looked at mentors: role models that take an active role in your growth.
Hopefully, your mentor was authoritative, being both supportive and demanding.
Here’s how you described them:
You also wrote a gratitude letter to .
In one word, you said it made you feel Vulnerable .
One way of paying it forward is having a prosocial, beyond-the-self purpose. Here’s how you responded to items assessing that.
… and so quickly we arrived at the end of the semester.
Here’s how your mood varied over these weeks.
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Do you notice any patterns? Is there anything that correlates with your mood?
Here you can scroll through all the quotes you wrote to summarize each class.
| |
| Grit changes depending on context. |
| Procrastination tends to surround more ambiguous tasks |
| Talent isn't god given, but created from experience early on, even if it's not recognized |
| People learn at similar rates regardless of their talent |
| Verbalizing your goals make it more likely for you to accomplish them |
| Don't mistake an obstacle for a "ridiculous obstacle." Search deep down to find what's actually holding you back |
| You cannot train will |
| Treat yourself the way you'd treat your best friend |
| Being social is becoming more of a requirement in the workplace |
In the final class, we looked back to everything we’ve learned together and to how our passion and perseverance evolved during this class.
Here are the comments from your Grit Lab Teammates:
| |
| Matthew Ty |
| Hey Leslie! You were such an awesome seat mate in Grit Lab. I always enjoyed how you would offer me food during lectures. You were also very fun to talk to during pair discussions, and I really appreciated how you took initiative during our group discussions. You were very honest when you shared your experiences, which made the class much more enjoyable.
From your discovery project, you kept it very real and relatable — just like in class. I enjoyed how you walked us through your actual peocess such as taking a Harvard online programming class, talked to someone in the industry, and even asked ChatGPT (which I'm sure most of us do). I myself am trying to figure out what I want to do in the future, and your discovery project gave me some ideas on how to explore this as well. I really hope you get to find something you love doing everyday in the future. |
| Sarah Lavery |
| Leslie is a warm, inviting, and vibrant individual! Her positive energy in discussion was always appreciated. She brought a refreshing perspective and created a welcoming environment for everyone to share. My favorite telling of Leslie’s character is how she would excitedly offer me and my groupmates whatever snack she brought to class. I really admire her ability to be genuine in her generosity. She made Grit Lab a wonderful experience and I will miss seeing her sweet smile each Tuesday!
I really loved listening to Leslie’s presentation and hearing her takeaways about exploring different career paths. Her candid humor during the presentation was enlivening and I hope to mimic it in my own presentations! It was so fun to listen to a topic (career search) that can often be stress inducing. As I am on my own journey in this area, I appreciate how honest Leslie was in sharing her findings and realizations. I learned about some different techniques to work through this question and appreciate Leslie sharing them. |
| Allegra Hill |
| Leslie’s witty sense of humor, willingness to listen to others, and warm presence tied together our team’s dynamic. Leslie’s energy is contagious, and she has a talent for making the group laugh. Her openness and warmth make her an essential member of our group, leaving a lasting imprint on the fun and camaraderie we shared during our in-class group discussions. I really enjoyed being Leslie’s teammate throughout the semester!
Leslie’s discovery project looked at whether she should pursue a career as an actuary or a data analyst. Leslie’s project seemed successful, as she ultimately determined which of the two best suits her personality and working style – being a data analyst. I particularly appreciated her emphasis on embracing diverse perspectives, as evidenced by her engagement in curiosity conversations and her proactive solicitation of feedback. Leslie’s openness to others’ opinions not only enriched her own understanding but also demonstrated a valuable collaborative approach to decision-making. Such a big portion of properly pursuing a passion comes from listening to and interpreting the experiences of others with more experience in the field, and I enjoyed hearing about how Leslie used this approach to increase her grit. I look forward to seeing how Leslie progresses in the field of data analysis in her professional pursuits. |
We hope you have emerged from Grit Lab a little grittier than you started.
Do you want to see how your grit rubric changed?
Drumroll please…
Don’t worry if the rubric doesn’t yet reflect growth. It is only a coarse measure that cannot replace your own self-reflection.
In any case, grit is not built in a day…
…remember that progress is never smooth…
…so stay passionate and persevering in the lifelong quest of choosing easy, working smart, and paying it forward.
With grit and gratitude,
Angela and the Grit Lab team.